Industry funding reminder for financial services licensees

ASIC has reminded Australian financial services and Australian credit licensees who have industry funding obligations to factor in the time it may take ASIC to assess applications to cancel or vary their licence, as part of any measures by licensees to reduce the industry levy they are charged for the 2019-20 financial year.

ASIC Commissioner Danielle Press said that ASIC has a licensing service charter that aims to assess 70% of all complete applications within 150 days of lodgement and 90% within 240 days. The application must include all mandatory supporting documentation and information.

‘We expect licensees to have considered ASIC’s service charter timeframes – particularly when applying to cancel or vary the conditions of their licence in light of ASIC industry funding.

‘How many we can ultimately assess is subject to the number of applications we may receive, the completeness of the application, and whether or not ASIC has any regulatory concerns related to the application’, Ms Press said.

Licensees with authorisations which are current on 1 July 2019 are liable to pay various types of industry funding levies related to the 2019-20 financial year, depending on the authorisations and conditions of the licence. Invoices to recover ASIC’s regulatory costs for 2019-20 will be issued in January 2021.